April 28: Obesity in America is Topic of Annual Moore Lecture

Event to be held at 7 p.m. in Ostrander Auditorium.

Mankato, Minn. – Obesity in America is the topic of this year’s annual Douglas R. Moore Faculty Research Lecture Monday, April 28 at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Minnesota State Mankato faculty members David Bissonnette (Department of Family Consumer Science), Penny Knoblich (Department of Biological Sciences), and Mary Hadley (Department of Chemistry and Geology), will present their talk, titled “Obesity in America: A National Crisis” at 7 p.m. Monday, April 28 in the Centennial Student Union’s Ostrander Auditorium.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Despite growing awareness of obesity’s consequences and increasing efforts at prevention and nutrition education, Bissonnette says, society is paying for the disease at an alarming rate.

“Growing numbers are decidedly shifting their beliefs and practices, but is it already too late?” Bissonnette asks. “In 1999, poor nutrition was already impacting Americans to the tune of $71 billion a year in lost productivity, premature deaths, and medical costs. Moreover, the direct costs to manage obesity in 2012 was estimated to be between $147 to $210 billion a year.

“The costs are so outrageously high that it behooves us to take action and turn this thing around. Few, it appears, are willing or even able to disentangle themselves from the web of addictive foods that many have come to love.”

The annual Moore Lecture celebrates excellence in research at Minnesota State Mankato. This will be the 40th such lecture, and the 27th named after Moore, who established the event.

Moore was president of then-Mankato State University from 1974 to 1978. His tenure saw the transformation of Mankato State College into a university, as well as the consolidation of the lower and upper campuses and construction of a new administration building.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 15,409 students, is part of the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system, which comprises 31 state institutions.

For Minnesota State Mankato events: individuals with a disability, who need reasonable accommodation to participate in this event, are asked to contact the Office of Accessibility Resources at 507-389-2825 (V/TTD), 800-627-3529 or 711 (MRS/TTD) at least five days prior to the event.